Author getting minister on the line (9)
I believe the answer is:
priestley
'author' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'minister on the line' is the wordplay.
'minister' becomes 'priest' (a church minister).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the line' becomes 'ley' (as in ley lines).
'priest'+'ley'='PRIESTLEY'
'getting' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for priestley that I've seen before include "who discovered an element" , "Writer" , "J. B. -, English novelist, playwright" , "Yorkshire novelist and playwright" .)